Your guided tour of the main locations of the BLOOD AND FEATHERS books.

HELL

You’ve heard that old saying about hell freezing over? It already has. Deep underground, the endless caverns of hell are accessed via the hellmouths: throats that open up in the soil, swallowing anyone brave (or foolish) enough to get close. The entrance is sealed by the Bone-Built Gate: a towering wall made entirely from human bone – and the only way in is through the frozen waterfall guarded by Charon the gatekeeper.

Beyond the endless stairways and open fields full of rock and little else lie the Plains of the Damned, where the majority of hell’s prisoners are watched over by the Ghasts: once angel half-borns, ruined by the cold of hell and with their eyes torn out, now they work for the Fallen. Beyond the Plains, among other regions, lie the Dark House – where your past is always waiting – and the River of Blood. On the far side is the Twelve’s territory: the space run by Lucifer’s generals.

Somewhere between damnation and the damned lie the cells, Xaphan’s laboratory and Purson’s torture chamber, as well as the study and library used by Balberith (the clerk of hell).

At the very heart of hell lies Cocytus: the frozen lake where Lucifer is held captive in a never-melting block of ice.

THE SACRISTY

The problem facing all Earthbound angels is finding somewhere to live – and Mallory is no exception. Lonely and feeling far from home, he was lucky enough to find a small church with an empty sacristy which he was allowed to take over. The church is quiet and deserted more often than not – and while he seems to keep the vandals away, he does attract his fair share of other visitors to the building – not all of them friendly. Essentially a bedsit with a tiny (filthy) bathroom, it’s been Mallory’s home for years. And he has the trash to prove it.

THE HALFWAY TO HEAVEN

The Earthbound angels’ bar. A dive, where they’ve had to replace the front window a dozen times, and where a night when there isn’t either a poker game or a punch-up (or both) is a rarity. The Earthbounds come to socialise, to trade gossip and to make plans. And to drink. A lot.

NO MAN’S LAND

Michael’s earthly fortress. The Earthbounds (and a fair few of the Descendeds) call it “No Man’s Land”… but only when Michael isn’t in earshot. He prefers everyone call it by its proper name: Mont Saint Michel.

Hidden among its steep stairways and vertiginous walls is an entire angelic garrison. And you don’t want to give them a reason to come out to play now, do you?